Inkjet printheads may suffer from printhead nozzles becoming blocked or partially obstructed due to ink residue in proximity to the nozzles hardening. Blocked or obstructed printhead nozzles may lead to print quality issues, especially if ink drops are not ejected by a nozzle as planned during a printing operation.
In printing systems that use moveable printheads, such as printing systems that have printheads that are moveable over a print zone, a printhead may be moved out of a print zone and into a printhead service station. In the printhead service station printhead nozzles may be serviced, for example by being purged into a spittoon, or by being wiped with a mechanical wiping mechanism, before being returned to the print zone.